Astronautics and Aeronautics, 1967 - NASA's History Office

ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS, 1967 May 2
May 2: NASA Assistant Administrator for Policy Analysis Gen. Jacob E.
Smart ( USAF, Ret.) received National Aerospace Services Assn.’s Quar-
ter Century award for “outstanding contributions to aerospace ad-
vancement” and continuing leadership and service in NASA. (Natl Aero
Serv Assn; Av Wk, 5/8/67,13)
Turbulence-measuring device developed at 1J.S. Weathix Bureau’s Na-
tional Storms Laboratory in Norman, Okla., might be used by US.
airports in 1968 to guide commercial airline pilots through severe and
moderate turbulence areas, Martin Waldron reported in New York
Times. Device measured severivy of thunderstorms by analyzing and
averaging radar pulses reflected from cells within the storm and then
registered cloud structure on a radar scope. Data were relayed to pilots
by flight controllers on the ground. Chief of U.S. Weather Bureau’s
radar systems section Stewart Bigler said a refined version of the
device had been installed at Washington, D.C., National Airport in
January and would be tested in June. If it performed satisfactorily,
similar devices would be installed in other U.S. airports in 1968.
(Waldron, NYT, 5/4/67,51)
Washington Post editorial criticized suggestion by nuclear physicist Dr.
Edward Teller that nuclear explosions be used to provide data about
moon’s interior: “Speaking for a multitude of laymen, we want our
moon left intact. If not many farmers are left who do their planting by
the times of the moon, at least all of us like to remember moonlit nights
when we were not thinking of nuclear fission. . . . If Dr. Teller wants
to dig another Isthmian Canal with ‘a small nuclear explosive,’ we
might consider that within the range of our needs. But let our moon
alone. We look forward once again to sitting in the moonlight on a
summer’s night and smelling honeysuckle without the thought that a
chunk of moon might blast off suddenly into another orbit.” (W Post,
5/2/67)
May 3: NASA’s Lunar Orbiter Incentive Evaluation Board awarded Boeing
Co. a $1,918,725 bonus-maximum amount permitted under May 1964
contract provisions-for the Lunar Orbiter II mission. Spacecraft had
obtained 98% of planned prime site photography after it entered lunar
orbit Nov. 10, 1966; equipment failure resulted in loss of other 2%.
Because Lunur Orbiter 11 also took excellent secondary photos-includ-
ing two million square miles of the hidden side of the moon-Board
ruled that usefulness of photographic data merited maximum award.
(NASA Release 67-112)
* Dr. Mac C. Adams, NASA Associate Administrator for Advanced Research
and Technology, was featured speaker at MIT conference sponsored by
Electronics Industries Assn. to acquaint aerospace industry with NASA’s
requirements for electronic systems on future space missions. He outlined
objectives of NASA’s electronics research program: (1) stabilization
systems to maintain orientation in space environment and to point
telescopes and other experiments at celestial bodies with precise
accuracy; (2) communications systems to translate data acquired in
space activities over millions of miles and at rates comparable to exchange
of information on earth; (3) communications and navigation
satellites to meet increasing demands in commercial air transportation ;
(4) data-handling systems to quickly and e5ciently store, catalog,
analyze, and edit data produced by space exploration; (5) instrumentation
systems to detect and measure environmental characteristics over
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